I use a tiny little Casio Exilim 2.0 Mega Pixel that I purchased years ago at Doha Airport when these things came out. I'm usually surprised by the quality of the results considering, but in a big room with poor lighting, the tiny flash simply can't cope.

Forgive me for copying one of your photos, but I "photoshop" it to illustrate how bad lighting can be corrected and a "tiny" camera can produce a good photo. I enjoyed all your photos of the Skopos Motor Museum.

This should really be in the 'Rubbish' thread, but I know it will appeal to Barry. Many years ago, when this car first appeared, I was a keen teenage slot racer. There wasn't a lot of commercially available stuff back then, if you wanted anything new or different, you had to make it yourself, and one guy in the Southport club (ARRA for any other old slot racers whose memories go back that far), made a very good Porsche 804 replica out of solid aluminium, when all polished up, it looked delightful. He cheated slightly by epoxying pieces of 3mm ali sheet together, but when the car was finished after a lot of hand filing and polishing, you couldn't see the joins. Walkden Fisher was the man responsible, and Charlie Fitzpatrick of fibreglass and later vac-formed bodyshell fame was in the same club. Walkden was a talented artist as well as a slot racer, he painted many of the covers for Model Maker magazine, and he also did many of those lovely cut-away drawings of cars boats and planes that appeared across the centre pages of Eagle comic for boys, he used to sign all of them with his name (Fisher) in the shape of a fish.

This should really be in the 'Rubbish' thread, but I know it will appeal to Barry. Many years ago, when this car first appeared, I was a keen teenage slot racer. There wasn't a lot of commercially available stuff back then, if you wanted anything new or different, you had to make it yourself, and one guy in the Southport club (ARRA for any other old slot racers whose memories go back that far), made a very good Porsche 804 replica out of solid aluminium, when all polished up, it looked delightful. He cheated slightly by epoxying pieces of 3mm ali sheet together, but when the car was finished after a lot of hand filing and polishing, you couldn't see the joins. Walkden Fisher was the man responsible, and Charlie Fitzpatrick of fibreglass and later vac-formed bodyshell fame was in the same club. Walkden was a talented artist as well as a slot racer, he painted many of the covers for Model Maker magazine, and he also did many of those lovely cut-away drawings of cars boats and planes that appeared across the centre pages of Eagle comic for boys, he used to sign all of them with his name (Fisher) in the shape of a fish.

I also realise that this should be in the Rubbish Thread but I had to reply to this.

I have to correct you on the builder of this fine slot car, it was Chas Keeling who built the ATS, not a Porsche (the aluminum finish maybe confused you after all this time) although you are absolutley right that Walkden Fisher and Charlie Fitzpatrick were also club members at the time and they also built some great models.

Charlie Fitzpatrick along with his son Ian is still very active with his Betta & Classic slot car business although sadly Walkden Fisher died many years ago. Dave Jones a fellow ARRA member and protege of Walkden Fisher still produces fine slot car bodyshells as well as wonderful aviation and motor racing paintings to this day.

When I carved a 1/32 scale master of John Cobb's Napier Railton I was very fortunate to be able to use Walkden's personal copy of the Profile Publications booklet courtesy of Dave Jones and I have a fine original painting of Louis Wagner at Savannah in 1908 complete with the "fish" signature.

The ATS still exists and Chas is still active in the slot racing scene to this day. At the 2005 Walkden Fisher Memorial Race Meeting at Pendles Slot Racing in Colne I photographed the ATS and talked to Chas about his scatchbuilding techniques.

Here are three views of the car

Chas with the ATS and his 4 wheel drive Harvey Aluminium Special

These slot cars should be in a museum so perhaps we haven't gone that far off topic .

I also realise that this should be in the Rubbish Thread but I had to reply to this.

I have to correct you on the builder of this fine slot car, it was Chas Keeling who built the ATS, not a Porsche (the aluminum finish maybe confused you after all this time) although you are absolutley right that Walkden Fisher and Charlie Fitzpatrick were also club members at the time and they also built some great models.

Charlie Fitzpatrick along with his son Ian is still very active with his Betta & Classic slot car business although sadly Walkden Fisher died many years ago. Dave Jones a fellow ARRA member and protege of Walkden Fisher still produces fine slot car bodyshells as well as wonderful aviation and motor racing paintings to this day.

When I carved a 1/32 scale master of John Cobb's Napier Railton I was very fortunate to be able to use Walkden's personal copy of the Profile Publications booklet courtesy of Dave Jones and I have a fine original painting of Louis Wagner at Savannah in 1908 complete with the "fish" signature.

The ATS still exists and Chas is still active in the slot racing scene to this day. At the 2005 Walkden Fisher Memorial Race Meeting at Pendles Slot Racing in Colne I photographed the ATS and talked to Chas about his scatchbuilding techniques.

Thanks very much for that David, I started having small doubts after posting, but you've brought everything back now, and here to make amends is a pic of the Walkden Fisher Porsche that I was referring to, and I was of course thinking of that ATS that Chas Keeling made, I remember that model as well. Walkden was a lovely man and a good friend, endlessly patient with young teenage slot racers like me, though it was his artistic abilities that impressed me most, his Lakeland watercolours in particular, though also of course all those Eagle centre-spreads. When there was a race meeting at ARRA, the track was in the cellars of Walkden's home in Southport, some senior club members like Walkden and Bill Rimmer used to acommodate impecunious young racers like me in spare rooms in their homes. No Police checks back then of course, they'd probably get locked up as paedophiles for an act of kindness like that today, but everything completely above board of course, and our parents never turned a hair when we told them. But you tell that to the kids of today...

Pleased to see that Chas Keeling is still active. Chas wasn't ARRA of course, but a founder member of the 'alifax club, on the top floor of a tall building in that town, probably long ago demolished, with steep and scary wood stairs. I remember that the Halifax track had what was must have been one of the longest straights of any track in the Country, a sort of Yorkshire Paul Ricard. Chas ran a small business making slot car bits, maybe he still does, I used to buy wheels and tyres and other parts from him. When foam tyres appeared to replace the solid rubber ones, Chas sold an evil smelling dressing for added grip. It rejoiced in the improbable name 'Galumph', which Chas used to justify by quoting the dictionary definition of that word "Go prancing in triumph". I think it had oil of wintergreen in it. The areas where we prepared our cars at slot race meetings used to smell like rugby club changing rooms.

Your mention of a 1/32nd Napier Railton has reminded me of a few masters that I made back then for Gordon Tapsell of GT Models.

Off-topic as ever, this is a bit inappropriate both for this 'Museums' thread, and it wouldn't really fit into the 'Rubbish' one, but I'm sure there are others who'd love to share old slot car memories, it was quite a big thing back in the 60s & 70s.

When I had my brief slotcar racing period circa 1970, I bought up a club's circuit in the northwest, the deal funded by my father and brokered by Mike Godfrey, the man who introduced Canon to Williams! It was the era of re-wound Riko(?) engines and foam tyres, bubble bodies that you painted from the inside with great difficulty, and pinned to the brass chassis. I was living in Crosby and the track was from somewhere in that catchment area (Southport?) but my memory fails me. It was the brittle Revell track, and I had tons of it. Any clues, anyone???

There were slot car racing clubs all over the place Tony, the one you had could well have come from Southport, but it wasn't the Southport track that David and I remember. That was a very solid structure on a heavy wood base. It was originally a rail track in the 1950s, the cars ran along a raised rail that carried the current to drive them, and it was one of the last tracks in the Country to convert to slot. ARRA's slots were lengths of plastic extrusion, only one join in the whole lap. These were fixed to the wood base, and then a skilled plasterer club member filled in all the space between for the cars to run on. The end result was considered the smoothest and fastest track in the UK at the time, but it must have weighed several tons when finished. As I said, it was in the Cellars of Walkden Fisher's house, and if the place is still standing, its possible that the track is still there. With low ceilings, narrow doorways, and steps down from the outside, there's no way anyone could have removed it without a massive break-up job first.

Here are some close up photographs of Chas Keelings Harvey Aluminium Special as requested.

Apart from the very nicely built chassis I love the hand painted signwriting on the bodywork.

Thanks for the fascinating information Rob about ARRA and I stand corrected on Walkden's Porsche, that is a car I wasn't familiar with.

Chas does still trade as SCD, it is remarkable that both Chas and Charlie Fitzpatrick have continuosly traded in the slot car field for all these years.

There was a bit of a North/South divide regarding tyre treatment, you say Galumph - Southerners used to call it Goop. You can't buy Oil of Wintergreen anymore as there have been fatalities due to overuse by some athletes. As you wander around the paddock area of a slot car meeting these days your eyes do still water from the various additives although oiling tyres for about a week before a race meeting is fairly common practice to soften them up. I should also mention that the slot car hobby is bigger now than it ever was in the 1960s and 70s, I've tried to get Barry to come along to one of the retro race meetings without success to date, you and he would love it...

Once again I half apologise for this going a little off topic but that does seem to be par for the course on TNF these days so I don't feel too guilty.

Once again I half apologise for this going a little off topic but that does seem to be par for the course on TNF these days so I don't feel too guilty.

David

Don't apologise, that's one of the things that makes TNF so great, you just never know what's going to turn up next. On Chas Keeling's two slot cars, I recognise the 'Elmic' gears, but are those motors Ks Mk 1 or Mk 2? I suspect that the long drive shafts makes them Mk 2s.

Don't know if he would be flattered to know this, but every time I saw Chas in my young slot racing days, he was tall and thin, slicked-back Brylcreamed hair, and wearing a dark suit, he seemed 'old' to me back then. The last time we met must have been about 40 years ago, but every time I see actor Tom Bell on UK TV, I think of Chas Keeling, honestly, I do.

There were slot car racing clubs all over the place Tony, the one you had could well have come from Southport, but it wasn't the Southport track that David and I remember. That was a very solid structure on a heavy wood base. It was originally a rail track in the 1950s, the cars ran along a raised rail that carried the current to drive them, and it was one of the last tracks in the Country to convert to slot.

I remember visiting the Southport club when still at Junior School. It was a great evening and I thought that I was going to get a Scalextric for Christmas - I got a Hornby electric train set instead!

You can find details on more than 1000 automobile and motorcycle collections. Some tramway, bus and tractor collections have also been included, but our aim was to focus on passenger cars, trucks and motorcycles. Both public museums and open-to-the-public private collections are included with locations shown on Google Maps, opening times and a few words on the collections themselves.Flexible search options include proximity search, where you can find all museums near a given location.

I note the search for an ex motor museum in the shape of the Patrick Collection... I am also searching for an ex museum but in Long Island, NY not in the UK so I am necessarily dependent on info from those who liver nearer than I do, as I live in Scotland!!

The museum in question was at the airstrip at Mattituck, Long Island and was the personal collection of the guy who owned and ran the airstrip. When he died some years ago, I believe the contents were auctioned off and may be untraceable. However, as one exhibit was supposedly an Edwardian Thornycroft car like the one I am currently restoring, I hope to be able to trace its current owner.

There is a suggestion that this particular car may actually have found its way back to the UK so my search may be fruitless as it possibly is already known to me, but the possibility that it is another survivor has to be worth investigating, as only two 18HP survivors are known at present.

I note the search for an ex motor museum in the shape of the Patrick Collection... I am also searching for an ex museum but in Long Island, NY not in the UK so I am necessarily dependent on info from those who liver nearer than I do, as I live in Scotland!!

The museum in question was at the airstrip at Mattituck, Long Island and was the personal collection of the guy who owned and ran the airstrip.

The guy who ran the museum was Parker Wickham and his company was Mattituck Aviation. Today the company belongs to Teledyne Mattituck Services. http://www.mattituck.com/

Fantastic service!!! Just called Teledyne Mattituck on Long Island and spoke with Parker's daughter in law Cindy. Parker is now elderly and frail but still very interested in things, so I hope to speak to him or his son Jay soon. Apparently a lot of the collection went to the Fairbanks Motor Museum in Alaska. Thanks again for the info.

Fantastic service!!! Just called Teledyne Mattituck on Long Island and spoke with Parker's daughter in law Cindy. Parker is now elderly and frail but still very interested in things, so I hope to speak to him or his son Jay soon. Apparently a lot of the collection went to the Fairbanks Motor Museum in Alaska. Thanks again for the info.

Then you're in luck, Nancy DeWitt is a charming and helpful lady there. You can contact her at the Fountainhead Antique Car and Auto Museum: projects (at) fdifairbanks.com

Five Estonia and Esttec cars will be soon exhibited in Autoworld museum in Brussels: three Estonia 21.10's, one Estonia 22, and one Esttec 894. This exhibition is said to be opened on June, 21 and to last about two weeks. So, if anyone is going to visit Autoworld at that time, please take and post here some photos of them (Estonia 22 especially, since this is the only car of this type ever built). Thanks in advance!

Five Estonia and Esttec cars will be soon exhibited in Autoworld museum in Brussels: three Estonia 21.10's, one Estonia 22, and one Esttec 894. This exhibition is said to be opened on June, 21 and to last about two weeks. So, if anyone is going to visit Autoworld at that time, please take and post here some photos of them (Estonia 22 especially, since this is the only car of this type ever built). Thanks in advance!

Autoworld is well worth visiting any way, and easy to Brussels from the UK. I have some photos somewhere. To Follow soon...

Interesting to see pics from Donnington here. I'm an Aussie, but finally managed to get over there and visit last year. Clearly they change it around at times, becasue I've seen pics of cars here that I did not see/locate during my visit last year.

I was at Donnington only on Tuesday - I last visited seven years ago - but found no bikes at all. Could I have completely missed an entire hall? At my previous visit there were quite a number of Barry Sheene's bikes as well as a special display of ex-Mike Hailwood works Hondas.

Paul - as I said, visited there June09, which is when I took the Barry Sheene bike pic - there were also a few others of older bikes.

Clearly they do change it - I noticed someone had a pic of a Louts 72D/E and a Ferrari 312B there - I would have KILLED to see those - but there was only 1 Ferrari in the entire place - a 2000 something of Schumachers.

Apparently, all, or nearly all, of the bikes at Donington were actually on loan. When it become certain that 'something' would be happening to the Grand Prix Collection, there was a frantic Sunday where a lot of people piled down to Donington and pulled their bikes out before they were stopped doing so. A few of them have ended up at Brooklands Museum.

Does anyone know the current status of the Donington museum - i.e. is it still open, is the collection significantly depleted and so on? I haven't been there since '88 but I'd like to get up there soon, if it's still worth it...

Thanks for any info, and apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere (couldn't find anything on a quick look)